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If you have leftover water softener salt or split a bag of it you won't have to waste it, there are lots of other uses for water softener salt, like deicing, killing weeds and unwanted plants, or even protecting your vegetables and herbs.

Salt is actually one of the most abundant materials on earth and thus humans have found multiple other uses for it in our everyday life.

What Are Other Uses For Water Softener Salt?

Water softener salt is extensively purified before it reaches you. This makes it about 99% pure, mind you, you cannot use water softener salt to season your cooking.

However, there are quite a few other uses of water softener salt!

Use Water Softener Salt For Deicing Your Driveways

Water softener salt can be used to melt the ice and snow on your driveway. When you spread water softener salt over the ice in your driveway, it lowers the freezing temperature of the ice.

The ice or snow will thus turn back into water. Since water softener salt is purer than rock salt, it will be even more effective in bringing down the freezing temperature of the water.

In contrary to what some people believe, using salt to deice your driveway won't damage the concrete!

Remember that the melted ice can refreeze after a while. Water softener salt pellets could cause uneven melting of the ice, making it unstable and dangerous to walk on. Be careful while melting the ice on your driveway.

Note that this doesn’t work the other way around. You cannot use rock salt in your water softener.

Use Water Softener Salt To Keep Snow Of Your Walkways

Water softener salt can also be used to melt the snow on walkways, stairs, or decks. However, keep in mind that high salt concentrations can be harmful to any plants, grass, or greenery in the area.

The salt you spread on the ground will mix with the melting ice and this water will later seep into the ground.

It can be beneficial too if you are bothered by weeds growing on your walkway, spreading water softener salt will help solve this problem.

Use Water Softener Salt For Killing Weeds

Water softener salt is amazing for getting rid of weeds and unwanted plants or grass. Just be careful that it doesn’t get near your lawn or garden.

Mix one cup of water softener salt to a gallon of hot water and carefully spread it over the patch of weeds or grass you want to get rid of.

If you want to target smaller plants or weed patches, pour this mixture into a spray bottle and add white vinegar to it. Spray it directly onto the base of the small weeds or plants.

Water softener salt will make sure that the weeds stay gone for almost the whole year. Just be careful that the solution doesn’t splash on any plants or grass you want to keep because it is very effective at destroying plants.

Protect Your Vegetables From Slugs

When you're growing your own vegetables you probably have found that you're not the only one that enjoys those nice leaves of lettuce.

An infestation of slugs can severely harm your harvest thereby destroying months of work. Luckily slugs are no match for a bit of salt. Thus a simple barrier of salt will keep those pesky creatures out of sight.

Either spread some salt around your garden or paste it on the rim of a plant pot like you would with a margarita.

Rain will dissolve the salt and wash it away into the soil, thus keep in mind that using too much salt too close to your vegetables could hurt their growth and that you might have to reapply the salt after a severe shower.

Don't Waste Your Water Softener Salt But Put It To Use

Water softener salt is the purest version of salt available. When we mine it from the earth, salt has a lot of dirt and impurities mixed in it. It is diligently purified to make it suitable to use in a water softener.

If you have an excess of water softener salt or switched to a water system that doesn’t need softening, you can use the leftover salt to melt the ice or snow on your driveways and walkways in the winter or for killing weeds and unwanted plants on your property.